University highlights staff volunteerism with new awards series
Lori Fuller, a student housing associate, will be honored for collecting donations of clothing for the homeless.
BY MICHAEL PEÑA
The Office of the President will honor three individuals at a lunchtime ceremony on Monday, Oct. 31, as part of a new quarterly series that recognizes community members who are dedicated to volunteerism. Two of the honorees are university staff who run donation programs on campus, and the third is their liaison for the nonprofit group that receives the contributions.
Lori Fuller, a student-housing associate in the housing services center at Lagunita Court, will be honored for her efforts in collecting students' unwanted clothing—mostly when school lets out in the spring, but also throughout the year. Other items collected during donation roundups include backpacks, footwear, bedding, sleeping bags, food, appliances and stuffed animals.
Fuller's clothing campaign began in 1997 in an all-too-suitable place—the laundry room at Roble Hall. She was a resident student affairs specialist at the time and she organized laundry-room cleanups, so whether or not the students knew it, they were supporting a good cause. She would pick up items that were left in the hallway, thrown in the dumpster or tossed into an empty kiddie pool that she set out and that eventually became known as the "Roble jean pool."
"My mother-in-law would help me wash it all," Fuller said. "We'd sit in front of the TV on a Friday night and sort hundreds of socks."
The clothes go to the Urban Ministry of Palo Alto, an affiliate of InnVision, a nondenominational organization based in San Jose. During the year, the drive is more casual, with Fuller accepting drop-offs at her office. But come spring, the effort kicks into high gear, with large fiber barrels placed at 50 sites throughout the major housing units on the west side of campus.
Last June, five 28-foot-long truckloads of sorted goods and clothing were sent to San Jose for InnVision clients and shelters, and one truckload of survival clothing and provisions went to Urban Ministry's Clothes Closet. Enough unopened food to fill one utility van was collected, and one furniture van was filled and sent off to InnVision, according to Elaine Hill, who runs Urban Ministry's Clothes Closet and will also be honored at the Oct. 31 event.
Formally called the Community Treasures Recognition Brown Bag Lunch, the event is a more "up close and personal" format for recognizing staff and faculty for community volunteerism. LaDoris Cordell, special counselor to the president for campus relations, introduced the "community treasures" concept last October while heading the Office of Campus Relations. Her office recognized 125 faculty and staff who volunteer off campus by presenting them with a booklet that documents their many contributions and holding a ceremony at the Haas Center for Public Service.
"I thought it would be good to highlight the work of people who are, what I call, our quiet heroines and heroes—individuals who commit acts of kindness about which most of us never know," said Cordell, who established the new quarterly series with major assistance from Jeff Wachtel, senior assistant to President John Hennessy.
The third honoree is Chelle Pell, the court liaison officer in Stanford's Department of Public Safety. She also heads the department's bicycle abatement program, which rounded up more than 130 abandoned bikes that were then fixed by volunteers and passed on to local homeless people last June. This also was done in partnership with Hill and Urban Ministry/InnVision, as well as with the university's bicycle program coordinator, Carolyn Helmke.
"It was more of a team effort," said Pell, who also credited student-housing staff with helping get the word out about the first-ever bicycle drive. "We're looking at possibly doing it at the end of each quarter from here on out."
Cordell will interview each of the honorees at the lunchtime event in Tresidder Union's Oak Room from noon to 1 p.m. Desserts and beverages will be provided, and those wishing to attend should RSVP no later than Monday, Oct. 24, to elizabeth.ross@stanford.edu. Nominations for future honorees can be sent to lcordell@stanford.edu. E-mails should include the person's name, e-mail address and a brief description of his or her community volunteerism.
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